Inside the New York Yankees clubhouse with MLB.com beat writer Bryan Hoch.

Yankees react to Rickey’s election

From the Yankees:

“There
was only one Rickey Henderson in baseball. He was the greatest leadoff hitter
of all time. I consider him a great friend with tremendous spirit and a true
Yankee.”

George
M. Steinbrenner (Yankees Chairperson)

“Rickey
and I have been friends for a long time, and I am ecstatic for him. I’ve
been fortunate and blessed to have played with a great number of phenomenal
baseball players but pound-for-pound, Rickey Henderson is the best player
I’ve ever played beside. No one was able to impact the course of a game
in as many ways as Rickey. This is a great day for him, and I can’t wait
to hear his acceptance speech.”

“His
election is well-deserved. He was one of the best players I that ever played
with and obviously the best leadoff hitter in baseball. We had a lot of fun
pushing each other to play at higher levels. I’m very glad to see he got
in.”

Dave
Winfield (Hall of Famer and Yankees teammate from 1985-88)

“Rickey
was one of the most competitive players I’ve ever seen. He was
relentless. He could beat you with his legs and his bat, and he could beat you
from the leadoff position, which was something people hadn’t seen before.
As a person, Rickey was very funny and generous. I hung out and talked with him
a lot, and we used to go to dinner. I enjoyed every minute of those
years.”

My thoughts are that a Nady/Swisher trade would result in adding a second utility infielder/outfielder (could be Berroa) with Ransom getting some outfield innings in the spring. A third such player could be part of the trade or obtained cheaply elsewhere to compete with Berroa/Ransom. Then signing Pettitte for a few more $$$ could still lower the overall salary total and give us greater flexibility. This would also result in more playing time for our fourth OF. We don’t need a fifth for other than an emergency!

Superior (or inferior) results in the AFL mean little as that league is primarily used to work on a new position or pitch or just to gain experience/confidence. For two years Eric Duncan was stellar but has shown little talent elsewhere. Hughes was there to gain innings pitched because of injuries. An equally good argument can be made to let Hughes dominate at AAA and hopefully stay healthy before joining the NY rotation in 2010.

It will be interesting to see a former Yankee and a former Red Sox ballplayer sharing the spotlight in Cooperstown.

Rickey is the greatest leadoff hitter I have ever seen so far. He was the ultimate ballplayer: speed, power, a winner with a great eye and patience, a great teammate on and off the field. What more could the Yankees or any other team want in a player?

I totally agree with what that article says bpark. The Yankees need to find at least one more solid, MLB-proven, veteran starting pitcher for their roster. They have a ton of good pitching prospects, but not nearly enough that are close enough to be MLB-ready to supplement the rest of the rotation, with total confidence in their ability to provide seamless help.

They have a center-fielder Josh Anderson who looks very promising. He is a speedy left with a little pop who stole 42 bases last year while batting a very respectable .314. I’m not sure how high the Braves are on this kid though, presumably high.

A new potential team to move either Nady or Swisher– the latter before the former. I wonder who the Yanks would ask for in return? I can’t really think of a hole that needs filling, anyone know the Braves system very well?

OH, and don’t get me started about this massive pile of rancid and decrepid feces that is the ommision of Bert Blylevin from the Baseball POS I mean HOF.

How do you rank #5 all time in strike outs and don’t get in?

In an era where you have the alltime hits leader with a lifetime ban, the home run king a mega juicehead who is probably going to jail, and the moder day wins-leader wrapped up in steroids controversy, having a class act like Blylevin in the Hall of Fame should be considered an HONOR.

This entire committee who votes should be castrated, well, in the event they each actually HAVE A PAIR.

Yeah DigiDee!!! Go get ’em!!! THAT’S the kind of strident tone I like to see on these blogs.

TELL IT LIKE IT IS.

Signing Pedro Martinez is like voluntarilly taking youe gonads to a cheese grater and rubbing-HARD-then complaining about the infection 6 months later.

He is DONE ( d-o-E-n) and I can’t see him pitching to a less then 4.50-4.75ERA this year. That’s fine for a #5, but you have 5 chumps in the Minors who can do that. Or you can sign Perez for that kinda crap.

I just saw where Smoltz is signing for $5.5, a one year deal, Why does Andy thinks his worth is more than $10 mil, I would’ve rather have signed Smoltz. No, Andy’s offer was not too LOW. sign Sheets!! forget Andy
Any one interested in some 1990s Yankee memorabilia books??
Contact me ( phylret@aol.com ), I will let you know what I have.

To the writer of the River Ave Blues article I say this to you, go slam your head in a door. Sign Pedro Martinez? Are you retarded? How is he any better than Hughes or any other kid in the farm? I’d advocate bringing back Ponson before Pedro. Did that guy forget Pedro assaulted Popeye a few years back? Did anyone see the pic of Smoltz holding up his blosox jersey? That uniform makes anyone look like a TOOL. The Pinstripes make anyone look like a ball player!
Peace out.

Actually, Lowe is getting 4 years at 15 million per. While that seems high, the Braves needed an ace to solidify their new look rotation, and needed to keep him away from the Mets. Lowe was the best pitcher available. I think we are overpaying Burnett more than the Braves are overpaying Lowe.

I think the Yankees are done for the offseason. All this trade talk is probabaly the work of a New York media that has nothing to write about. Not discounting the possibilty that there will be a trade, but it’s all blown out of proportion. The only real question left is Pettite.

will ajax play in the MLB (end of 2009) ?
will Girardi change his jersey # ?
will 1B and 3B carry the team throughout ?
will cano rebound, hitting .300+ ?
will posada throw runners out high% ?
will melky learn batting discipline ?
will the new ballpark deliver a bang ?
will rickey go to the hall as a yankee ?
will hughes win 10 + games in 2009 ?
will Joba be a starter or closer after July ?
will we own 1st place this year ?
will CC win pitching triple crown ?
will arod hit 50+ in odd year 09 ?
will the rays-repeat ?

Matt, Bryan, Golf and others:
ESPN keeps track over QUALITY starts defined by them. Pettitte (69) ranks #2 over the past 3 years, 2nd only to John Smoltz (71), ahead of Johan Santana (68). This is an important point when you consider the lack of run support Pettitte has received. I saw Pettitte get mad in 2007, something I have never seen.

Back in time

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